by P. S. Newman
"It got away," a voice barked into my ear like a general issuing orders.
"Captain Ganner?"
"Who were you expecting, your Fairy Godmother? You called in the doppelgänger forty-five minutes ago.”
"I did, yes." Over the hotline. How the heck had she gotten wind of it so quickly?
"Well, it got away. One of my teams stayed on its tail through half the city after it came out of that garage. Until it set my team's vehicle on fire and disappeared. Did you know it could do that?"
"I've seen it torch things, yes." I'd almost been one of them.
"Then you know you're outmatched."
I didn't like the direction in which she was steamrolling the conversation. "I still have a few tricks up my sleeve."
"As much as I want to ask you about those tricks, it's not why I called. I have a proposition for you. I want you to partner up with one of my hunters."
"No."
"Please reconsider," she said, uncharacteristically civil. "It’s only a matter of time until this case is blown wide open because the doppelgänger is targeting the Baptistes. It will become known that you're the hunter on the case and the public will expect results. They'll hold you responsible, and me by extension, because it got away from us first and we're sitting on our hands, waiting for Miss Private Hunter to take it down. So I'm sending a hunter after the doppelgänger, whether you agree or not. But it makes sense for you to partner up."
It did make sense. It also set a precedent I didn't like. Agreeing to work with the Order on this case was one step closer to joining it.
But I wanted this doppelgänger caught. I wanted David, Bella, and Cecelia to be safe, to end my working relationship with Sean, and to eliminate this shade that had mocked me and was hell-bent on killing innocent people. "Okay," I said. "I agree to an Order partner. For the duration of this case. Are we clear on that?"
"Crystal. When and where can you meet him?"
"I'm kind of in the middle of--"
"He will start now, with or without you. I can give you his number, but you'll end up chasing him through the city. He's not one to wait."
Oh, for Pete’s sake. "Tell him to meet me at the Pit in forty-five minutes." We might as well start where I'd figured to go next.
“Why the Pit?”
"Just send him there. And while you're at it, I'll need a permit to get onto Pit grounds."
"Done," she said. "I'll send it with Taylor."
“Sergeant Taylor? I'm not teaming up with him." I didn't have enough fingers to count off the reasons. He loathed my kind. He’d seen Greyson. He was a loose cannon. He--
"Well, he's the one you're getting," Ganner said, her voice as final as mine. "He volunteered."
"To work with me? I doubt that."
"No, he's as unhappy about this pairing as you are. But he wants to catch the doppelgänger, so he's willing to overlook your differences."
How mature of him.
"He's my best hunter," Ganner continued through my struggling silence. "He could be a great asset."
He would be a great pain in my asset. But I was fighting a lost battle. My number one priority was to catch this doppelgänger. Having a partner, even one like Taylor, would raise my chances. I couldn't refuse.
"Fine. The Pit, forty-five minutes. I'll meet him there."
I hung up before she could reply. The others were watching me with interest. "I have to go. The Order offered me a partner for the case."
"We heard," David said. "You didn’t sound happy with the selection."
"Captain Ganner calls him her best, but from what I can tell he's a fanatic. He hates shades with a passion."
"That might be a good thing in this case if that's what drives him to success."
"Maybe."
"In the meantime," Sean interjected, "what about him?" He nodded towards Greyson. "He needs to be eliminated. Those are the rules we set ourselves when we began to use SHAID as a front for our illegal activities, David. He is a documented, media-covered shade. The risk is too great, not just for us, but for all our members.”
"Fuck the rules," David said. "He saved my life. I'm saving his. Quid pro quo."
Sean's jaws worked. “You’re ‘compromising’ again. Good luck doing so with the other chairmen. I’m out of here.” He got to his feet with a glance at me. “I’m sorry, Eden. I can’t support this crazy scheme.”
“I understand.” I did understand, even though I got the feeling he was doing it more for personal reasons than because he was looking out for other people’s wellbeing.
David sighed when the door closed behind his brother. "You must excuse Sean's impulsive behavior," he said to Greyson. "He can be his own worst enemy."
"Will he work against your plan?" Greyson asked. "He doesn't like me. Would he report me out of spite?"
David shook his head. “Not as long as he’s a member of SHAID. He won’t endanger his friends, no matter how he feels about you."
"Or how he feels about Eden?"
So he'd picked up on that. “I have to get going,” I said. No way was I getting into the Sean-and-me issue with Greyson right now. "We still need to figure out where you’ll be staying until David can put this plan into action.”
“I’ll take you to the SHAID safe house,” David offered with a glance at me. “Don’t worry, I’ll talk to Izzy.”
I nodded my okay. If anyone could persuade her, it was David.
Greyson looked at me. “I can’t stay with you?”
Don’t I wish. “Not if we want to give David's plan every possible chance,” I said. “If someone sees and reports you living with me, it’ll be over before we ever get started. The safe house is... safer.”
“Will we see each other?”
I hesitated. “It might be better if we didn’t.” Not just for the security of David's plan, but for the sake of my sanity. Greyson’s draw on me was too great.
Greyson got out of his chair, the calm facade he'd maintained wavering. David took that as his cue to disappear in his en-suite bathroom.
"Not ever?" Greyson asked, stepping towards me.
My heart thrummed up my throat as his head dipped closer. I swallowed, fighting the urge to reach out and touch him. "For a while, at least. Especially since I'll be hunting the doppelgänger with the hunter who saw you. We can't take chances. Not only your life will be forfeit if Taylor identifies you."
He nodded. "I don't want to endanger you or your friends. But I do want to see you again. Your name may be different, but to me you’re still Elysia. You’re still Zee."
The way he said my name made my traitorous heart flutter. The impulse to fling myself into his arms was overpowering. It was all so twisted. This man had existed for barely a day, we'd met only a couple of hours ago, and yet I knew him. I knew the heart and soul of him and I loved him. It sucked that I had to let him go now if we were to have the slightest chance of being together.
"I would like to see you again, too," I said, locking away the roiling emotions inside me. There would come a time to explore them. Hopefully. "Very much."
"I look forward to it.” His eyes danced as he leaned closer. My heart lurched. I tipped my face towards him and closed my eyes, powerless to resist. I wanted to taste him. Just this once. But his lips didn't meet mine. Instead, he kissed my cheek. I refused to feel disappointment and savored the sensation of his warm lips against my skin.
"Ahem." David cleared his throat next to us. I hadn't heard him exit the bathroom. "Eden I hate to interrupt, but you need to get going or this Taylor will start the hunt without you. I’ll make sure Greyson gets to the safe house."
Greyson and I drew apart. It took me a while to fully comprehend David's words. "Okay," I finally managed.
Greyson watched me, curiosity, amusement, and warmth lifting the corners of his mouth and lighting up his eyes. I took a mental picture of his face, stored it away in my heart. Then I turned and left David's office.
“Permission to speak?” Aunt Vy said as I wal
ked us to the elevator.
“Go ahead.” I wasn’t in the mood for a lecture, but the immediate necessity for her silence had passed.
“I have a bad feeling about this.”
I stepped into the elevator and hit the button for the garage. “Okay, C-3PO.”
“I’m serious. This is a stupidly bad idea, child.”
“Which one? Harboring Greyson? Making him SHAID’s mascot? Me teaming up with the Order, let alone Vaughn Taylor?” I didn’t have a good feeling about any of those. But I knew which one I suddenly found the most stupidly bad. “Or me listening to my sword when I know exactly what you’re going to say and that it won’t be helpful?”
“You mean it’s not what you want to hear. But I’m not going to stop giving you my opinion just because you threaten to leave me to rust in your basement.”
“Don’t tempt me.”
“Greyson Deynar will be your downfall.”
I rolled my eyes. Dramatic, much? But she wasn’t done.
“This scheme has ‘backfire’ written all over it, especially with David once again going over Sean’s head like that.”
“Sean won’t betray us. He may disagree, but he isn’t going to endanger David or himself like that.”
“And yet the byproduct of his subconscious mind is running around the city trying to kill David. But Sean isn’t the only hole in this plan riddled with holes and held together by the fraying strings of David’s sense of obligation and your misguided delusion that Deynar is the only man you’ll ever love.”
“I have two years of proof to back me up on that ‘misguided delusion’.”
“Because you haven’t allowed yourself to let the idea of him go. That’s all he ever was - an idea in your head. What would you tell other women who manifested their dream man and wanted to keep him? What do you tell Bella every night she manifests the puppy of her dreams? What gives you the right to be the exception in this case?”
Something inside me snapped. “You mean, what gives us the right? You and I were merely ideas in Bella’s head once, too,” I turned it back around on her. “Why do you and I get to live, but Greyson doesn’t?”
“He—”
“I’m done talking about this with you,” I interrupted her. “Shut up or I will shut you away where I don’t have to listen to you criticize every move I make.”
I expected another ‘as you wish, mistress’; something pithy, condescending, or patronizing that would allow me to hang on to my anger and shut down the guilt I felt the moment the threat flew out of my mouth - again. Instead, the only thing my sword emitted was unnerving silence all the way down to the parking lot.
CHAPTER NINETEEN
"You're late."
Needless to say, Taylor had beaten me to the Pit. He stood in front of the green gate, arms crossed in front of his chest.
"Thank you, Captain Obvious," I said. "Do you have my permit?"
"All dealt with," he said, indicating the small gatehouse. “Ganner called ahead. You just need to sign in.”
"Great." I pushed past him towards the guard station.
He stopped me with a hand on my arm. "I have a bone to pick with you."
If Aunt Vy hadn’t still been sulking on my back, she would’ve had a field day with that one. I freed my arm with a jerk of my shoulder. "Another one?”
Taylor scowled, the chilling effect deepened by the glacier blue of his eyes. "You didn't call again."
For the love of… I'd been hoping to avoid this conversation because technically he was right. I'd broken my promise about calling him when I found the doppelgänger. Again. If I'd meant my promise, I might have felt bad about it. "I called the Order. Their number was easier to dial."
"Then put mine on speed dial, damn it," he snarled.
"Plus, they were on scene faster."
"How do you know? I could have been right around the corner."
I laughed at him. "How big are the odds in this city that anyone is right around the corner? Unless you're following me around." I wouldn't be surprised, but if he was stalking me, I had to put a stop to it.
"You think I've got nothing better to do with my time?" he asked, but the heat had gone out of his voice. He knew I'd handled the situation right. Calling him would have wasted precious time. Not that it had changed the outcome in the end.
"Tell you what," I said, deciding to make a gesture of peace. Working together would be easier without this resentment hanging over our heads. "I'll put you on speed dial right now." I pulled my phone out of my right pocket, his card out of the left, where I’d stuck it the day we met. I tapped his number into my phone. "And then we go in there and find this doppelgänger.”
He nodded his agreement. "Why are we here, anyway? What does the Pit have to do with the doppelgänger?"
“He’s the one who murdered your colleague.” I indicated the little guardhouse to our left.
That shut him up. For about two seconds. “Brady was murdered by this shade?”
“Probably. The cops were able to identify Sean Baptiste on a fraction of the video before the cameras got burned. Sean presumably doesn’t have a motive, but we already know that his doppelgänger isn’t a model citizen. We have eleven hours to find him and discover the shade’s motive or the cops will bring Sean in for questioning. This is all confidential, by the way.”
“Of course. And don’t worry: I keep my promises.”
And a fast hold on his grudges.
He ignored my eye-roll. “Does Ganner know?”
“I haven’t told her. It’s on a need-to-know basis. There, all done. You're number four in my speed dial list." I put the phone away and walked towards the guardhouse. Taylor followed.
The small building squatted in the darkness next to the fence like a square toad. The guard waved at us through the window. My attention was caught by the black scorch marks that marred the white walls in the top corners, where the cameras were situated. The white paint had peeled and bubbled off, but the cameras looked sparkling new. There was no other evidence that a crime had taken place here.
The guard came out to meet us, carrying a clipboard and two gas masks. He introduced himself as Tom Jensen and pushed the clipboard into my hands. “Sign this. It states that you’re relieving the Order of all responsibility should you be hurt or killed while on our ground.”
Comforting. “What if the Sarge pushes me in, is that still not the Order’s responsibility?”
It was Taylor’s turn to roll his eyes. “Just sign the damn thing.”
“We’ve entered the no humor-zone, got it.” I signed the document attached to the clipboard and handed it back.
“Now put these on,” Jensen said, giving us each one of the gas masks. “The fumes aren’t toxic, but they do irritate the eyes and sinuses.”
We pulled the masks over our faces and Jensen checked they sat tight. The air flowing through the filters tasted stale and the mask dug into my scalp. At least I wasn’t the only one feeling uncomfortable; Taylor was tugging at mask, too. With the big goggles and the giant respirators, we looked like aliens out of a sci-fi flick.
Jensen gave us a thumbs-up. “You’re all set.” He jogged back to the guardhouse and disappeared inside. Two seconds later, five deadbolts on the gate snapped to the side with a clang. The gate swung open. We walked through, into a cloud of heat, sulfur, and brimstone. I could taste it on my tongue even through the mask. Ick.
“Was the smell always this bad?” My voice was loud and thick in my ears.
Taylor’s, on the other hand, sounded muffled through the masks. “I don’t know. This is the first time I’ve been this close.”
As we walked closer to the edge, I reached out with my shade sense, trying to get a read on the Pit. Maybe I knew its creator by chance. Maybe I could feel the doppelgänger in its overwhelming presence if he was indeed linked to the Pit somehow.
“What do you think we’ll find here?” Taylor interrupted my secret attempts to connect with this gigantic shade.
/> “I was hoping for clues as to the doppelgänger’s whereabouts or motives. Or maybe the doppelgänger himself. He must have had a reason for coming here and killing the guard.”
Taylor grunted in derision. “Seems unlikely it would return to the scene of the crime. This one’s too smart.”
“If you have a better place to start, feel free to share.”
We reached the edge, visible by the red glow that was thrown off the inner walls of the Pit. We went up to it one step at a time, testing the stability of the ground with our feet, taking care to distribute our weight slowly. There was no telling how stable the area was and neither of us wanted to slide to certain death. As far as the reports went, nobody who’d fallen in had ever gotten back out, alive or otherwise. The lava seemed to feed on anything that dropped into it, devouring it like a sentient being, growing with every feeding.
Heat ruffled my hair when I dared a peek over the edge. The sulfur-laden air prickled on my exposed hands. As uncomfortable as the gas mask was, I was glad to have it. I looked down. And down. And down. The ground fell away like a ragged cliff, only it wasn’t water churning at its bottom.
The Pit wasn't wide, about the size of a football field, but deep. And hot. And fumy. And filled with bubbling lava. The dreamer’s essence was unfamiliar but so strong I could sense it without touching any part of the shade. Fear was the prevalent emotion, though fear of what I couldn’t tell. Volcanoes, maybe?
Taylor stood beside me, peering into the fiery depths. He found a small rock lying on the gravel-strewn ground next to him. He kicked it forward, sending it flying over the edge of the Pit. One-Mississippi, two-Mississippi… It seemed to fall for an eternity, a receding black spot against the glowing red. The lava rippled when the rock finally hit the surface and sank. The rock set the liquid fire churning as if there were a large creature thrashing beneath the surface. The red glow turned bright yellow. Then the lava stilled. A bubble popped up like a baby's burp.
"That was… weird." The bafflement in Taylor's voice was evident even through the mask.
